Puneet Varma (Editor)

1979 in video gaming

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Business

  • New companies: Activision, Edu-Ware, Infocom, Strategic Simulations, Capcom
  • The US market for arcade games earns a revenue of $1.5 billion (equivalent to $4.95 billion in 2017).
  • Games

    Arcade
  • October, Namco releases early color game Galaxian.
  • August, Atari releases Lunar Lander.
  • November, Atari releases Asteroids, which becomes Atari's second best selling game of all time and displaces Space Invaders as the most popular game in the US.
  • November, Vectorbeam releases Tail Gunner, a space shooter with a first-person perspective.
  • December, Nintendo releases Radar Scope, featuring a pseudo-3D, third-person perspective.
  • Cinematronics releases Warrior.
  • Sega releases Monaco GP, featuring full-color and one of their last discrete logic (no CPU) hardware designs.
  • Computer
  • August, Automated Simulations releases Temple of Apshai, one of the first graphical role-playing games for home computers. It remains the best-selling computer RPG through to 1982.
  • October, subLOGIC releases Flight Simulator for the Apple II.
  • Richard Garriott creates Akalabeth, a computer role-playing game for the Apple IIe. It launches Garriott's career and is a precursor to his highly successful Ultima series.
  • Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw create what is commonly recognized as the first playable MUD.
  • Console
  • December, Atari Adventure for the Atari 2600. It is recognized as the first visual adventure game, or action-adventure, and has one of the first known Easter eggs in a video game.
  • Hardware

    Computer
  • June, Texas Instruments releases the TI-99/4, the first home computer with a 16-bit processor.
  • September, NEC releases the PC-8001, the first in the PC-8000 Series of home computers.
  • Console
  • Mattel test markets the Intellivision console in Fresno, California. It is released throughout the United States in 1980.
  • Handheld
  • November, Milton Bradley Company releases the first handheld game console, the Microvision.
  • Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi begins development on the Game & Watch, released as a line of handheld electronic games in 1980.
  • References

    1979 in video gaming Wikipedia